The Department of Energy has approved two loan guarantees worth more than $1 billion for solar energy projects in Nevada and Arizona, two days before the expiration date of the Recovery Act clean energy program. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the department has completed a $737 million loan guarantee to Tonopah Solar Energy for a 110 MW molten-salt solar tower on federal land near Tonopah, Nevada, and a $337 million guarantee for Mesquite Solar 1 to develop a 150 MW alternating-current solar plant 45 miles west of Phoenix. The two projects will avoid nearly 500,000 tons of carbon dioxide pollution a year.